Ch. 4 A Friendship fit for Rivals

So as it turned out, I ended up running into Kirito a lot through the rest of break.

Mostly because he kept finding me curled up in a ball lost in the hallways – only this time he wouldn't help me find my way to class. He'd just stand there and smirk. I could tell by the way that his shoulders moved that he was laughing even though it was too deep for me to hear. Then he'd follow me around as I tried to preserve my dignity by trying to find my way to class again.

Unsurprisingly he still acted like a stuck up jerk and gave me crap for my lack of direction every time we saw each other, but he was the only other person I saw around Ouran over the break.

Over the time I grew a very strong feeling of annoyance towards him, in a slight, very, very slight endearing way. What can I say? He was the only person I talked to for almost a whole week.

At first I had thought there was hope for him, that maybe this was only a part of his personality. I was dead wrong. He was just an asshole that only cared about himself and his own amusement.

'I'm starting to think he stayed here because no one wanted him home' I thought bitterly at one point.

Fortunately he wasn't able to laugh at me for long. In Japan, you don't change classrooms like in America; you just stay in one and the teachers change. But I still needed to know where bathrooms, the gym, and other extra curricular rooms were. From those points I'd try getting myself back to my dorm or to my classroom, but it was a fairly simple thing to memorize.

But at last April 1st arrived. Ouran became packed with students and I was happy that I'd never have to see him again… hopefully.

Although I had been fortunate enough to memorize my way to my class, what I didn't count on was hallways looking a lot different when they were packed with people. Somehow I was able to make it to my first class by the skin of my teeth and was met with uncomfortable attention because my 'uniform' didn't match.

I had been getting some looks that were curious but not rude and other disinterested glances but the reaction I received the most was a slight tilt up of the head when they glanced away. As if to say I wasn't worth their time because I wasn't rich…

I had been dealing with that the most ever since I ran into contact with the other kids. In my 'home' classroom I was happy to be met mostly with curious or disinterested looks, and, to my surprise, there was another misfit amongst the students. It looked like a boy; he had messy brown hair and was wearing dark dress pants, thick glasses with an un-tucked white dress shirt and a gray sweater that tied the ensemble together.

There was an empty seat behind him so I took it.

I sucked up some courage and tapped the kid on the shoulder after the first lesson ended and we were waiting for the next teacher to get here.

His face looked oddly familiar when he turned around but I shrugged it off.

"Um, sorry to ask this but I was just curious as to why you're not wearing the uniform either."

"Oh, well you see I'm on a scholarship program here and I couldn't afford the uniform so I'm just wearing some of my dad's old dress clothes." He explained. His voice sounded so familiar too… I was trying to pinpoint where I had heard it. I must have run into him when I was in Japan last year but for the life of me I couldn't recall if I had. I wasn't here long enough to remember many people I guess…wait did he say scholarship program?

"Wait – I'm part of that program too, so how does this…"

"Work?" He finished. "I have no idea…"

But it couldn't have been a mistake, if it was, then only one of us would have received a schedule. I thought I should talk to someone about it, but what if there was a chance that it was messed up and I wasn't' supposed to be here? Then they would ship me back home and I didn't want to leave yet… And even if he was the one that they messed up on, I didn't want to get him kicked out. That's just too mean.

It was at this moment that I overheard the idle chitchat from some of our classmates was about us.

"Two commoners? I thought they were only letting one in."

"This is weird,"

Some of them were on the more snobbish side were "I don't want to be around all this filth." Or something or other.

My fellow scholarship student and I just stared at each other and through that glance we seemed to say – just roll with it.

"But only one of us can be the top of the class… " I muttered although I'm sure he could hear.

"Well I don't know about you, but I'm aiming for perfect scores." He replied under his breath.

"So I guess that makes two of us…" One more exchanged glance was all the encouragement either of us needed. We were rivals shooting for the same goal, but as long as the two of us kept the same score then neither of us could get kicked out of school.

Then the next teacher had arrived and quieted everyone down. My fellow student, that I still hadn't caught the name of, turned around to face the front, and I felt fired up even more then before.

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Haruhi Fujioka was surprised to see another scholarship student in class. At first, she assumed it must have been a mistake but became concerned – what if she was the mistake? Even if it wasn't her, she didn't want to get the other girl kicked out either. So they agreed, they would both do their darndest to get top scores – to tie.

Hopefully that would save both of them

Something else about the girl – Bee Gray, as she learned by listening to role call – struck Haruhi as familiar. Something about the face and accent. She could have sworn she talked to her somewhere before but she couldn't quite remember. The only thought that came to mind was of the girl Haruhi had chatted with the day of the exams.

That was more likely then not to be where they had met. I mean, who else had she talked to that looked familiar, had an American accent, and had applied to Ouran?

But Haruhi doubted Bee even remembered her, considering many changes had occurred since they last saw each other and she didn't mention anything about Haruhi looking similar. So Haruhi decided that there wasn't really a point in mentioning it.

Over the next two weeks Haruhi found herself talking to Bee off and on again, more particularly when they were both looking for a place to study.

Actually, Haruhi had seen Bee looking despairingly at the ground in a hallway and asked what was wrong, the other girl seemed extremely embarrassed if her flushed face had anything to say about it, as she explained how she was trying to get to the library. She also murmured other things under her breath about how she'd been practicing getting back and forth and how some jerk kept teasing her about it and that the only reason she got lost was because she couldn't recognize anything when the hallway was filled with people.

Haruhi couldn't help it, but she giggled at the girl's story and then watched as her eyes lit up when she tried to defend herself.

Haruhi had waved it off and apologized, offering to be her guide to the library.

So for a short while they traveled form library to library, trying to find a quiet one to study in. They had given each one at least two days for a test run but ended up skipping out. At one point they volunteered to take over cleaning duty for their classroom so when they were finished they could just spend their time sitting there studying and assisting each other. However, cleaning the room often took so long that Haruhi would have to be heading back home soon or sometimes there were meetings being held in that room.

The girls were getting desperate.

Then one day Bee wasn't in class, Haruhi assumed she was sick or something. Either way, Haruhi would continue searching for a quiet place to study. And that's when she stumbled upon music room 3, and on the host club.

That's when life changed forever.

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Two weeks of school had gone by and I had become pretty good friends – or perhaps study buddies would be a more appropriate term – with Haruhi. The only problem was that we couldn't find somewhere to actually study. Everywhere was too noisy. I would have suggested we study in my dorm room, but I didn't think boys were allowed and I had some pretty noisy girls of the snobbish variety who often hung out in the dorm room next to mine anyway.

Unfortunately on the first day of the third week I caught a slight cold and I didn't want to risk making it worse so I stayed in bed all day resting. Even more unfortunate then that, the resting didn't work and it did get worse. I was out of class for three whole days, a devastating blow to any scholarship dependent student. When I couldn't sleep, I'd try guessing at what subject matter we would be learning so I could try and stay with the class, but it all felt pretty hopeless and the fever I had been sporting didn't help me to focus.

I'd have to ask Haruhi to help catch me up.

Although I had a very odd feeling that things wouldn't be even close to the same as they were before when I returned to class and Haruhi no longer looked like the Haruhi I knew. He was wearing an actual school uniform and the twins, Hikaru and Kaoru, made comments to him once in a while. When I asked him what was going on he said he'd explain it to me later.

I was so confused when class was over and Haruhi was given the time to explain. All that really registered was that there was a group of eccentric boys, the twins included, that ran a host club and somehow Haruhi became indebted to them.

It kind of frightened me. Sure while I was here by myself before I had been trying to get used to the idea of going it alone, I had never expected to make a friend like Haruhi, but the thing is: I did. He had been somewhat of a guide for me and I was a little frightened to be losing him.

"Then I'm going there." I stated.

"What? I don't think that's such a good idea –"

"No. Haruhi you need 100 customers to get out of debt right? Well I can be a regular so you have another one knocked off the list. Besides, I'm going to need your help catching up on the material I've missed… it's a win win situation." I reasoned. He gave me a conflicting glance.

"I'm not so sure you can handle these guys…"

"Oh please, I'm sure I can handle anything they throw at me! I'm a fairly adaptable person." I had been slightly insulted my that statement and now a little excited to meet this host club. "How bad could they be really?"

A chuckle came from my right. And I turned to see two red heads glancing out the window as if they hadn't just been listening to our conversation.

"Well someone seems a little confidant huh Kaoru?" One twin said.

"Spunky little thing. Seems like we'll be seeing her around often." The other, Kaoru replied. I tried to make a mental note of the distinct differences in their voice for future reference. Both gave off a similar air but something was… different. I just couldn't put my finger on what it was.

"Perhaps we'll be getting another toy."

"Hey who are you calling a toy?" The words came out of my mouth before I even realized I thought them. I didn't speak my mind to people I didn't feel comfortable around, unless of course, I did it without thinking… which I just did.

What really pissed me off was that they didn't even bother to acknowledge me! Cheeky rich kids! Ugh, they were getting under my skin so easily and that irked me even more.

"Hey calm down and just ignore them." Haruhi stated, noticing the twitchiness of my hand against the table. "Trust me, its what I've been doing. They're nothing but trouble." I took Haruhi's word for it.

"So you still think you can handle anything that the club throws at you?" He asked.

"Bring it on." My tone was hard. I couldn't stand those twins and Haruhi had already told me they were part of the club. But I didn't know what to do without Haruhi and was way to nervous to try making friends with any of the rich kids. Haruhi felt closer to me because we seemed to have more in common despite our vast differences.(Ironic I know.) Not only was it the fear of losing my friend, but it was a challenge. I was itching to prove that those twins – or anyone else at the host club for that matter – couldn't get under my skin!

Boy, was I WAY in over my head this time…and I mean it.